
Many social media practitioners and managers get stressed and overburdened managing day-to-day tasks on multiple social media accounts, especially when they have to keep up with the latest trends and maintain the consistency of content and posting. This is why creating and maintaining an effective social media content calendar is important. According to a study, 64% of successful companies have a documented content strategy that includes a content calendar.
In today’s fast-paced world, maintaining a social media content calendar is not a luxury but a necessity that every marketer should do. It allows you to plan, collaborate, organise, and keep track of everything. It provides you with a blueprint of your social media content to improve its effectiveness.
In this article, we’ll learn why we need a social media content calendar, its types, and how to create it!
Why do you need a social media content calendar?
If you are an individual or a team that manages social media accounts or multiple social media accounts, then you need a social media content calendar. Posting consistently on multiple platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, etc, can lead to loss of time, loss of resources, and energy. This situation worsens when you have to post different content on different social media platforms at the same time, it can lead to confusion amongst the teams and a lack of interest. However, with a social media content calendar, you can monitor and manage multiple versions of your content and content strategy ahead of time.
If we don’t have a planned content ready, then it can lead to inconsistency and make your content irrelevant. Depending on the day and time, you can schedule what type of content should be posted on which date.
Content calendars help in understanding what works and what doesn’t work for your agency. When you post consistently, your brand builds its customer base and engages with them. You can also align your content with holidays, events, etc. It also reduces time and helps in using resources more efficiently. It also improves team coordination and efficiency. Consistent posting also enhances the online reputation of your brand.
Types of social media content calendars

There are many ways in which you can set up your social media content calendar. You can use a spreadsheet, calendar app, et,c that can remind you when to post. Also, a project management tool helps you in tracking tasks and deadlines. Here are some of the types of social media content calendars you can choose from according to your wishes.
- Spreadsheets: You can use spreadsheets to manually add the post date, content,a nd other details. It organises your strategy and encourages collaboration between team members. However, you have to manually add up everything and schedule the post.
- Social Media Management Tools: Social media management tools help you in planning, scheduling, and publishing posts across multiple social media platforms automatically. It also offers features where you can manage everything in one place and re-plan your strategy after studying the data. It also notifies you whenever a comment, brand mentions, etc, is made. You can respond to comments from this platform.
- Project Management Tools: These tools are useful for organising tasks and tracking deadlines. You can create a list and assign each task to a team member. After this, you can set up a timeline for when content is to be created and posted.
- Calendar Apps: They are simple and help in setting reminders. You create tasks and add them to your calendar. You can also include your images and copy in the notes. This app reminds you when to post.
- Evergreen Content Calendar: This focuses on creating and scheduling evergreen content that will remain relevant for a longer time.
How to create a social media content calendar

Let us learn how we create a social media content calendar
- Social Media Audit: Before creating a social media content calendar, you must conduct a social media audit of your past content. Consider key performance indicators, brand goals, target audience, publishing frequency, highest and lowest performing posts, etc. You can manage analytics from Meta Business Suite, Instagram Analytics, etc. Use this analytics to see what is working for your content and what is not. You can also conduct a competitive analysis to know more about your competitors’ performance.
- Use Social Media Calendar Template: Use such templates for organizing, streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, and tracking important metrics. Your social media content template should include social media accounts, date and time, social copy, media, options for feedback, KPIs, published post links, UTM tracking, Geo-Tag, paid or organic post, approval status, etc. UTM tracking links help you in measuring the traffic from a post, traffic type, and help in identifying which campaign brought the most traffic.
- Social Media Platforms and Content: Use a channel where your audience is mostly active. At the same time, analyze your data to understand which theme or category is performing better. Using this information, you can determine which content type works best. You can use social listening to learn what your audience wants to see. You can analyze your competitor’s content to understand the target audience’s preferences better. Make sure your content provides some value to your audience.
- Posting Schedule: You must create a posting schedule to identify the ideal time for publishing. Select a time on the basis of your audience’s preferences. Posting consistently is important, but never prioritize quantity over quality. Identify a pattern in your audit and competitive analysis. Select a time when your audience and potential leads are most active and likely to see your content.
- Tracking: Your social media content calendar is not only a planning tool but a tracking and measuring metric as well. Analyze the information you get from social media campaigns to optimize your content calendar. If you tag posts to specific campaigns, you can track content that should be optimized or repurposed. Whenever content performs well, save it, and you can reintroduce it in the future when you have to brainstorm new content.
- Team: You work together within your organization, where each team member has a particular responsibility. Social media collaboration helps in strengthening content and helps brands reach organisational goals. Seek feedback from your team members. It includes a team working outside marketing that can give you new, unique ideas for content and publishing time. The product team can inform you when a new product or service will be launched.
The most effective social media strategies are based on research, planning, and execution. Creating a social media content calendar helps in fulfilling your marketing goals. Using a social media content calendar, you can improve your efficiency and spend your time and resources on other important tasks. So what are you waiting for? Start building a social media content calendar for your brand. Don’t forget Lumia 360, you can create a social media content calendar more easily. Manage and monitor the creation and scheduling of your social media posts. To know more about our services, email us at info@lumia360.com or call us at 514-668-5599.
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